Fictions are especially novels describing imaginary events. Novels have different kinds of plot form-tragic, comic, satiric or romantic, and to a great extent its characters reveal themselves and their intentions in dialogue. The novel is characterized as the fictional attempt to give the effect of realism, by representing complex characters with mixed motives that are rooted in a social class. It functions in a highly developed social structure. It also mixes up with many other characters. It is like a play with plot and characters. A dramatist must depend on what he can make us see and hear for ourselves, but a novelist can describe what could never be presented on any stage. He can tell us what is happening, explain it and finally give his own remarks on it. His story may not be symmetrical in exposition, crisis and denouement. At the beginning of the book there will be a crisis. After that before the climax, the book will devote its pages to show how the crisis arose.
The novel has no strict frame work. Usually foreign critics have commented that English novels lack as ense of proportion even though it has richness and variety in it. Due to this the author takes full advantage of the freedom he gets. The novelist is eager to represent life in its fullness and its creative urge may overshadow his sense of artistic unityand balance in narrative, description, characterization and dialogue. But this willmatter nothing if the author can keep the reader under his control with his plot,characters and narrative style until the story ends. The author’s personality is a veryimportant factor. Every novel must present a certain view of life and some of the problems of life. It should be a mirror reflecting the author’s outlook of the world with all incidents, characters, passions and motives. It should be our agreement or disagreement with this view of life that decides our choice in fiction.
The earlier works of English fiction were stories of action. In modern novels the tendency has been to subordinate action to psychology. They try to find the central theme in the mental and spiritual development of the characters rather than in their physical adventures. In the greatest novels plot and characterization are organically connected. There is an argument that characterization is the most important aspect.Even if the reader cannot relate the complex plot, they will never forget the characters.
The setting of a novel can be in any part of the world. They can be set in any time past, present or future. Almost every period of English history has contributed a novel. Regarding the settings many authors have their own selection of places. Some have even marked out a region as their own. After reading the ‘Waverley Novels’ of Walter Scott, one looks for the places mentioned in the novels. Thomas Hardy dominates the south-western England for which he gave the name Wessex. Arnold Bennett selected the Midland region potteries as the background for his novels. The seexamples will be enough to show how English novelists responded to local influences. One can even classify the novels by their social settings.
Through every novel unintentionally the author comes up with his own views of life and problems. Older writers saw nothing wrong in this and it was a regular practice with them to give a type of running commentary. It was a time when people liked to be lectured rather than entertained. But in modern fiction, readers do not like the authors appearance since it interrupts his story. In fact, the readers like the lesson to be taught revealing through the plot and the characters rather than the author teaching them. The effect of this method will be great. The Short Story is a prose narrative of shorter length than the novel especially one that has a single them. It is not merely a greatly shortened novel. It has all the usual constituents of a fiction. But the plot, character and setting cannot be treated with the same detail as in a novel. Each has to be reduced to the minimum, but should get the intended effect. The plot should be reduced to the essentials. Characters are used to the indispensables. Sometimes the writer may construct a story of plot alone with characters and setting restricted to the requirement. At other times character alone may be prominent with plot and setting restricted.
The language of short story should contribute to its effect different from a novel which has passages that sometimes has nothing to do with the plot. This will drag the plot and lead it nowhere. Descriptive passages are only valuable in so far as they contribute towards the total effect. Short stories will long continue to meet the needs of readers and find new plots to suit the taste of the changing
world.
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